Authors work to clear Air Corps pilot’s name

Kelly A. Mello

Thursday

Jul 30, 2009 at 12:01 AMJul 30, 2009 at 8:17 PM

At the wake for United States Army Air Corps Lt. William Flynn, Jack Flynn saw a short man pin silver wings to his brother's uniform. Jack Flynn learned that this man, retired United States Army Air Corps Sgt. Alvin E. Kotler, was a friend of his brother who served with him in World War II. In addition to being close to William, the two men had another thing in common: They wanted to clear his name.

At the wake for United States Army Air Corps Lt. William Flynn, Jack Flynn saw a short man pin silver wings to his brother's uniform.

Jack Flynn learned that this man, retired United States Army Air Corps Sgt. Alvin E. Kotler, was a friend of his brother who served with him in World War II.

In addition to being close to William, the two men had another thing in common: They wanted to clear his name.

Kotler and Jack Flynn became friends, and Flynn learned the details of the incident that ended his brother’s military career with a dishonorable discharge and sent him to federal prison. Those details became the subject of Kotler and Jack Flynn's book, “We Came to Fight a War.”

Kotler, a Canton resident, met William Flynn at an operational training unit in Tennessee. They flew as a crew for three months.

“We trained together,” Kotler said. “We were like a family. We lived as a crew, fought as a crew and depended on each other.”

Kotler became the radio gunner on William Flynn’s B-17 during the course of multiple bombing missions out of Foggia, Italy, in 1944 and 1945.

On May 28, 1945, William Flynn, a Wakefield resident, was awarded The Distinguished Flying Cross for “extraordinary achievement” in combat and Kotler was awarded the Purple Heart for a mission in which they were also cited for destruction of government property.

The crew was flying to Vienna when they came under fire and were shot off course, descendeding through the Italian Alps. The shrapnel struck two engines, which failed and caused the oxygen line to leak. Kotler received a shrapnel wound to his leg. Despite the chaos, William Flynn knew what had to be done. In order to clear the mountains, he told the crew to strip the plane and throw anything they didn’t need outside to keep the plane from falling too quickly.

In what Kotler described as incredible flying, William Flynn managed to avoid crashing on a beach and found an emergency landing field and safely put the plane down.

“We were the important part, not the plane,” Kotler said.

“[William] was built to fly, to do heroic things,” Jack Flynn said. “He had a way of calming people down when horrible things were happening.”

On April 15, 1945, Kotler and William Flynn completed their 25th and final bombing mission out of Foggia, Italy. To earn some extra money before they were shipped back home, Kotler said the pair took on training flights. William Flynn was going to get married when he got back, and wanted to save for the wedding. One flight was for the tuxedo, Kotler recalled. Another was for the catering. Each flight brought William Flynn closer to marrying the woman he loved.

There were concerns at the time by the Army Air Corps about pilots “buzzing” – flying below 1,000 feet over heavily populated areas. When William Flynn lost control of his B-17 during a June 22, 1945, flight, Kotler and Jack Flynn said he became the Army’s scapegoat.

According to Kotler, William Flynn lost control of his plane over a “tent city” where pilots and co-pilots were staying. The area was known for its rough winds and while William Flynn struggled to keep the plane as high as possible, it jerked to the left and dropped as low as 40 feet above the ground. One of the plane’s wings struck a telephone pole cable, which wrapped around a driver who was killed in the accident.

A General Court Martial was convened, and William Flynn was convicted of manslaughter, relieved of all honors and benefits, dishonorably discharged from the service and sentenced to a year of hard labor in a federal prison.

Jack Flynn and Kotler said William Flynn didn’t stand a chance during the trial. After his attorney died of a heart attack, he was provided with an inexperienced Judge Advocate General lawyer to defend him.

Many of the witnesses who could have helped William Flynn’s case had been shipped out before the trial. One witness who did stay to testify was ordered to sign what Kotler and Jack Flynn call a false statement indicating that William Flynn was “buzzing” at the time of the accident.

After the war and prison time, William Flynn married Dorothy Dunnan of Stoneham, and they raised seven children together. William Flynn ran into Kotler some years later, and Kotler offered him a job at his liquor store in Lakeville after learning he was having money problems. William Flynn worked for Kotler long enough to get back on his feet and later worked for UPS as an area manager until he retired in 1985.

For 15 years, every Memorial Day, William Flynn would fly a small plane over Wakefield and drop flowers on Moulton Field where there was a memorial for fallen veterans.

“They chose Bill to do it because he was the only pilot in the area who could be relied on to hit the target from a thousand feet,” Jack Flynn said.

William Flynn died in March 2008 at the age of 83.

“To the day he died, he never spoke bad of his country,” Kotler said.

“He never blamed the government,” Jack Flynn added. “He was a patriot from the get-go.”

After William Flynn died, Kotler and Jack Flynn made it their mission to clear his name and see his military honors restored. Their crusade led to the publication of “We Came to Fight a War,” a book that Jack Flynn has sent to former President George H.W. Bush and to Sen. John Kerry, seeking their help.

Bush replied with a personal letter expressing his condolences but apologizing because he couldn’t get involved. Kerry sent back a more generic letter saying the past conviction could not be overturned.

But Jack Flynn and Kotler aren’t giving up.

“Our goal is to right this wrong,” Jack Flynn said.

“We Came to Fight a War” can be found online at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.

Canton Journal

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